Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/470

 HUNTER

HUNTER

HUNTER, Robert Mercer Taliaferro, states- man, was iMirii at HuiUits Hill. Essex county, Va., April ^1, 1809; sou of James ami Maria (Garnett) Hunter; grandson of "William and Sarah (Garnett) Hunter, and of Muscoe and Grace Fenton (Mer- cer) Garnett, and a direct descendant of James Hunter, who (or his son "William) immigrated from

Dunse, Scotland, and settled in or near Fredericksburg. Va. He was the imcle of the Hon. Muscoe Rus- >^^ sell Hunter Garnett. ,/, J He was graduated

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at the University of Virginia in 1829 and

.yP^U^^/^c..^^ ^t t''« Winchester Law school in 1830. He practised law in Lloyd's, Essex county, and was a representative in the state legis- lature, 1834-36. He represented his district in the 25th, 26th, 27th and 29th congresses, 1837- 43 and 1845-47, and served as speaker of the house in the 26th congress, when only thirty years of age. He was chosen U.S. senator in 1846 as successor to "W. S. Archer; took his seat, Dec. 6, 1847, and was re-elected in 1852 and again in 1858. In the senate he advocated the annexation of Texas, the compromise of the Oregon question, the tariff bill of 1846, and opposed the "Wilmot proviso. He advocated the retrocession to Virginia of the portion of the Dis- trict of Columbia west of the Potomac river, and voted to extend the line established by the Missouri compromise to the Pacific ocean. He opposed the admission of California and the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and took his political stand as a state-rights Democrat, on the question of slavery. He be- came chairman of the finance committee in 1850, held that position until 1861, and framed the tariff act of 1857 which lowered duties and re- duced the revenue. In the Kansas troubles he advocated the bill of 1855 forbidding the u.se of the U.S. army to enforce the acts of the pro-slavery Kansas legislature; also favored the repeal of the Missouri pro-slavery law, which declared the death penalty for nearly fifty of- fences possiljle against the rights of .slave-hold- ers, and in 1857-58 he advocated the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton constitution. In the Democratic national convention of 1860 at Charleston he was a prominent candidate for the nomination for President of the United States

and received, next to Stephen A. Douglas, the largest number of votes on the first six ballots. He took an active part in the campaign of 1856, speaking through the North and foretelling the dissolution of the Union if the rights of the southern states were abrogated in the territories. In a sketch of Mr. Hunter Mr. L. Q. Washington says: "When the great and regrettable contest between the North and the South arose, Mr. Hunter held that the South was simply standing on her constitutional rights. He held that it was her right and duty to resist aggression. He stated his position in temperate, thoughtful, con- ciliatory, but firm, language. At no time of his life did he for one moment doubt the perfect justice and truth of the Southern cause. Gladly would he have welcomed a settlement between the contending states on the firm basis of consti- tutional rights for both sections, safety for his own i^eople, malice and injury to none, and an enduring peace with honor." He took an active part in the secession convention at Richmond, Va., and on the secession of Virginia, in 18G1, he left the U.S. senate. He became a member of the provisional Confederate congress at Mont- gomery, Ala., and was suggested as the President of the new government, with Jefferson Davis as conamander-in-chief of the army. On July 21, 1861, Mr. Davis made him his secretary of state, on the resignation of Secretary Toombs to enter the Confederate army. Mr. Hunter resigned this position when unanimously elected to the Con- federate States senate by the legislature of Vir- ginia and he was made president pro tempore of the senate. In February, 1865, with Alexander H. Stephens and John A. Campbell he was a peace commissioner and met:Mr. Lincoln and Secretary Seward on board the River Queen in Hampton Roads. On his return to Richmond from the fruitless conference he presided over the war meeting that resolved, without opposition, to carry on the war till the South had achieved its independence. He opposed the bill allowing freedom to such slaves as should serve in the Confederate army, and when the question came to a vote, he acted under instructions from his constituents and voteil for the measure under an emphatic protest. He was arrested at the close of the war, and after imprisonment in Fort Pulaski for several months, was released on parole, and in 1867 was pardoned by President Johnson. He was an unsuccessful candidate for U.S. senator from Virginia in 1874, was elected treasurer of the state in 1877, and at the close of his term, in 1880, retired to his farm in Essex count}', Va. He was appointed by President Cleveland, U.S. collector of customs at the port of Rappahannock, Va., in June, INSG. Sketches